Kever – Primordial Offerings (2018)

Primordial Offerings follows up on the first Kever which focused more on an intelligent form of percussive death metal; the second EP from this promising band attempts to invent a new style of atmospheric death metal without losing any of the intensity, sounding like a mix of Florida, Buffalo, and selectively melodic European acts like Fleshcrawl and Demigod.

Expect very basic and bold riffs around which slight melodic touches accentuate placement in the sonic space created, with songs that repeat a few basic loops with a couple detours that increase atmosphere by shifting the context in which you hear the original riffs. This gives these basic patterns increasing intensity over the course of the song.

Citing several similar patterns across its length, Primordial Offerings feels much like a concept album, starting with an idea and developing it covertly in the margins of several songs. Intensely lyrical lead guitar highlights the emotion of riff transitions in a way that has been rarely seen since Obituary Cause of Death.

Few bands have had the wisdom to take death metal as it was and develop it in a continuous format, building on its vocabulary not by adding “new” elements but by enriching and deepening that vocabulary. With one foot in the old and the new, Kever grow death metal from within, losing none of the brutality as they add melody and atmosphere.

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8 thoughts on “Kever – Primordial Offerings (2018)”

  1. Immediately I can tell that they have not cucked or sold out. That gives me hope because Eon of Bicycle-Riding Death had so much raw guts and spirit.

  2. Autist assissinator in training says:

    I don’t like coming here are just writing contrarian comments, but my nature along with the truth fixes my actions in advance.

    Brett, this is sleep-inducing.

    It tries to draw you in via rocking-and-rolling rhythms and ‘wild’ guitar solos. This may appeal to most, but not to me.

    Perhaps if they used the drums as more of a timekeeping device/used blasts much more, they could have focused on the riff more exclusively and the veracious developmental power of the former.

    1. I’ll never understand why nu-old school dm bands are so afraid of the blast beat. Even the exact same track could have improved with some blasting here and there. Are the drummers incompetent or is it some sort of kneejerking to bands like Nile?

      1. European bands did great stuff without blast beats. They work in some songs, less so in others. If you are going to try for an atmospheric approach, it’s hard to make the blast beat work as anything other than a disruption.

    2. It struck me as more going for a feel and then making a song around it. The part you should listen to that is not boring is how the riffs layer on top of one another to make an implication of melody that hangs there. The solos are decoration, and the drums sounded more like how Led Zeppelin did things than a metal band, kind of there to foreshadow stuff but not pound it all out literally. Will not appeal to Asphyx fans or br00tal death metal groupies.

  3. Svmmoned says:

    I think that Obituary’s first three albums need some reconsideration (and perhaps one of those fine DMU analysis). Beneath its unattractive, outdated and fairly limited style there are elements which determined strenght and uniqueness of death metal, but were later abandoned by it in a very unfortunate process of simplification and streamlining.

    1. People get tired as they get older. First them dumb down the riffs, then they make rap metal, and then they die.

  4. Salustiano says:

    This was competent overall. Most notable feature and something to be praised is that the (short) riffs are developed as themes with multiple variations over the course of each track. Definitely not bad. Will revisit.

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